Penguins
Bounce Back, Force Game 7
On the brink of elimination, the
Pittsburgh Penguins came out with their best effort to avoid being eliminated.
Though down 3-2 in the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Penguins
were confident they could bring the series back to Pittsburgh. After their game
5 overtime loss, Evgeni Malkin made a Messier-like guarantee when he said, “we’re
coming back to Pittsburgh for a 7th game.” His prediction turned out
to be correct, as the Penguins went on to win game 6.
Though the Penguins came flying out of
the gate, it appeared as if the game wasn’t going to go their way. About five
and a half minutes into the game, it appeared as if Johnathan Drouin had put
the Lightning up 1-0 when he shot the puck into a wide open net. The Pittsburgh
coaching staff decided to challenge the play for a possible offside. Upon
further examination by the officials, the goal was overturned and the game
remained scoreless. The Penguins would continue to press until Phil Kessel
scored a 5 on 3 power play goal with 1:14 remaining in the 1st.
The Penguins continued to come at the
Lightning in the 2nd period. Their desperation was showing, as they
were faster, had more shots, and had more chances than Tampa. At 7:40, Kris
Letang wristed a shot through traffic to beat Vasilevskiy and make it 2-0. At
10:06, Ondrej Palat was called for slashing, giving Pittsburgh a power play
with an opportunity to go up 3-0.
This was the exact same situation as
game 5, where the Penguins had a power play opportunity midway through the 2nd
while up 2-0. After that power play had expired, they gave up a goal seconds
later, followed by the tying goal 70 seconds after that. Last night in game 6,
the same thing almost happened again. Palat got a semi-breakaway chance right
after stepping out of the penalty box, but was stopped by Matt Murray. With
time winding down in the period, Sidney Crosby scored a highlight-reel goal to
make it 3-0.
During the second intermission,
analysts Jeremy Roenick and Mike Milbury both pointed out the lazy passes that
were costing the Lightning. This was leading to multiple giveaways and
turnovers that the Penguins were turning into scoring chances. The Lightning
needed to figure out how to fix their mistakes before it was too late.
The Lightning finally found their
wheels in the 3rd, as they were faster and were generating more
scoring chances than the first 2 periods. They got some puck luck when Phil
Kessel accidently tipped Brian Boyle’s pass into the net to get Tampa on the
board at 5:30. The Lightning had brought the building to life and began to
surge offensively. Boyle scored again to make it 3-2 at 12:43 when he wristed a
shot into the top corner of the net.
Sensing another Lightning surge, Pittsburgh
hunkered down as they attempted to whether the oncoming storm. Young and speedy
Bryan Rust spoiled the Lightning’s comeback bid when he deked Vasilevskiy and
scored on a breakaway with 2:08 to go. Nick Bonino added an empty net goal with
less than a minute remaining to ensure that the series would go 7. The Penguins
staved off elimination and now have the chance to advance to the Stanley Cup
Finals for the first time since 2009. If the Lightning advance, they will be
the first team to go to consecutive Cup Finals since Pittsburgh and Detroit
each did it in 2008 and 2009. Though it’s almost impossible to predict who will
win game 7 in Pittsburgh on Thursday, I’m going to go with the Lightning in a
very close regulation win.
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